Link to home
Start Free TrialLog in
Avatar of Pau Lo
Pau Lo

asked on

Patching important servers that require high % uptime

What is the correct terminology for servers that require a larger than normal percentage of “on time”.

For starters I am not a windows admin, so I am trying to understand counter concerns from a windows admin on some issues. But I have noticed a lot of our windows servers are on an unsupported service pack. These seem to be more important servers for critical apps. There is definitely a trend. I am wondering why they may be on an unsupported SP. Does applying an SP take more effort and more down time than normal monthly patches?

What should an admin do when applying an SP to a server that does not have much of a window for down time? Or are there no such servers – every server has a window of opportunity when it can be patched/SP’d.

Do normal patches require reboots?

I was thinking for stuff like banking apps (which doesn’t apply in our case) where users are accessing them 24/7 – what do there admins do when it comes to patching / applying SP’s?
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
Avatar of Joseph Daly
Joseph Daly
Flag of United States of America image

Link to home
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
Start Free Trial
SOLUTION
Link to home
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
Start Free Trial
Avatar of Pau Lo
Pau Lo

ASKER

Does taking it down mean the server on which a business critical app depends mean the actual app/website will go down for some time? For example, going back to the banking apps - they are alwyas up so how are they patching the servers behind?

Thanks
Avatar of Pau Lo

ASKER

Yeah it was OS SP
Avatar of Pau Lo

ASKER

>>However patching is a definite necessity

Does it make any odds if its not a web server in DMZ, more a backend DB server in a private network, behind firewall etc.
SOLUTION
Link to home
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
Start Free Trial
SOLUTION
Link to home
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
Start Free Trial
Avatar of Pau Lo

ASKER

Thanks - this "app" collects data has loging/logout type functions so probably wouldnt fall into read only
If the app collects login and logout information, I would think that a weekend during nighttime hours would lessen any impact that you may see by doing the updates.

Assuming that your company is not a 24/7 international company it would be a pretty safe bet that many people wouldnt be logging on at 11pm, 2am, etc if you are really worried about the downtime.
SOLUTION
Link to home
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
Start Free Trial